Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

138 I will praise You with my whole heart; before the gods I will praise You.

² I will worship toward Your Holy Temple, and praise Your Name, because of Your lovingkindness and for Your Truth; for You have magnified Your Name by Your Word above all things.

³ When I called, then You heard me and increased strength in my soul.

⁴ All the kings of the Earth shall praise You, O LORD; for they have heard the words of Your mouth.

⁵ And they shall sing of the ways of the LORD, because the Glory of the LORD is great.

⁶ For the LORD is high, yet He beholds the lowly; but He knows the proud afar off.

⁷ Though I walk in the midst of trouble, You will revive me. You will stretch forth Your hand upon the wrath of my enemies; and Your right hand shall save me.

⁸ The LORD will perform toward me. O LORD, Your mercy endures forever! Do not forsake the works of Your hands. To him who excels: A Psalm of David

5 Then the Philistines took the Ark of God and carried it from Ebenezer to Ashdod.

² The Philistines took the Ark of God and brought it into the house of Dagon, and set it by Dagon.

³ And when they of Ashdod rose the next day, in the morning, behold, Dagon had fallen upon his face on the ground, before the Ark of the LORD. And they took up Dagon and set him in his place again.

⁴ They also rose up early in the morning the next day. And behold, Dagon had fallen upon his face on the ground, before the Ark of the LORD. And the head of Dagon and the two palms of his hands were cut off upon the threshold. Only the stump of Dagon was left of him.

⁵ Therefore, the priests of Dagon, and all who come into Dagon’s house, do not walk on the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod, to this day.

⁶ But the Hand of the LORD was heavy upon them of Ashdod, and destroyed them, and struck them with tumors, both Ashdod and its territories.

⁷ And when the men of Ashdod saw this, they said, “Do not let the Ark of the God of Israel remain with us! For His Hand is severe upon us, and upon Dagon, our god!”

⁸ They sent, therefore, and gathered all the princes of the Philistines to them, and said, “What shall we do with the Ark of the God of Israel?” And they answered, “Let the Ark of the God of Israel be carried around to Gath.” And they carried the Ark of the God of Israel around.

⁹ And when they had carried it around, the Hand of the LORD was against the city with very great destruction. And He struck the men of the city, both small and great, and they had tumors break out.

¹⁰ Therefore, they sent the Ark of God to Ekron. And as soon as the Ark of God came to Ekron, the Ekronites cried out, saying, “They have brought theArk of the God of Israel to us to kill us and our people!”

¹¹ Therefore they sent and gathered together all the princes of the Philistines, and said, “Send away the Ark of the God of Israel, and let it return to its own place, so that it does not kill us and our people!” For there was a destruction and death throughout all the city; and the Hand of God was very severe there.

¹² And the men who did not die were struck with the tumors. And the cry of the city went up to Heaven.

5 For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle is destroyed, we have a building given by God; that is, a house, made not with hands, but eternal, in the heavens.

² For therefore we sigh, desiring to be clothed with our house, which is from Heaven.

³ Because if we are clothed, we shall not be found naked.

⁴ For indeed, we who are in this tabernacle sigh and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but clothed; so that mortality might be swallowed up in life.

⁵ And He Who has created us for this thing, is God; Who also has given us the earnest portion of the Spirit.